The plankton bloom which wiped out more
than 500 tonnes of fish along the East Johor Strait last week, and seems to
have now affected farms in the western side, has raised concerns on the
industry's future here, Singapore’s Straits Times reports.
Read more HERE.
Affected farmers told The Straits Times that
despite earlier warnings given by the Agri-Food and Veterinary Authority (AVA),
they were shocked at how sudden and severe the latest bloom was.
Mr Simon Ho, who is in his 60s and has been
in the business for five years, had put in oxygen compressors since receiving
the warnings in the middle of last month. But he still lost all 35 tonnes of
his fish- the product of more than a year's worth of work - at his farm off
Lorong Halus jetty.
In January and February last year,
thousands of fish died after being poisoned by plankton blooms caused by high
temperatures and low tides.
But Mr Frank Tan, 40, who owns Marine Life
Aquaculture, said that unlike last year, the bloom was much harder to detect
this time.
The bloom typically turns water
brownish-red, when the plankton appear in large numbers. This year, he did not
see this happening.
Some fish farmers say their enterprise is a
"high risk" one, given that they already have to cope with
unpredictable environmental factors, such as temperature.
Of Singapore's 126 fish farms, 117 are
coastal, and most grow their fish in net cages in the sea. That means the
livestock is vulnerable to changes in the environment.
Now the worry is that the deadly plankton
blooms may become an annual affair.
The answer may be to rear the fish in a
closed containment aquaculture system, which will shield the animals from
external factors.
These systems include putting the fish in
giant tanks into which filtered and oxygenated seawater is pumped. These tanks
can be placed on land or on platforms out at sea.
But older farmers are reluctant to make the
change from the farming methods they grew up with and know so well, while
others say containment systems simply cost too much.
Read more HERE.
The Aquaculturists
This blog is maintained by The Aquaculturists staff and is supported by the
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